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Nutrition Response Testing Deeper Understanding

FAQ’S

(If you don’t ask you’ll never know!)

(Exert from "Be Healthy Now" by Paul J. Rosen J.D.,L.Ac.,EAMP

What Does "Regulation" Or "Regulating" Mean?

"Regulating" is a term we use to describe a body that is open to healing. You may recall that, in your initial evaluation, while using your arm to resist pressure, your practitioner placed the palm of her or his hand over you naval and asked you to "match the pressure". In this part of the evaluation, a normal sign was a weak muscle~ your arm going down. In other words, a weakness here was a good sign. It meant your body was regulating.

What Does "Blocking" Mean?

When the autonomic nervous system (ANS) is stressed, it can be prevented from regulating specific organs or glands normally. When this happens, I use the term "blocked" or "blocking" to describe your condition. During the muscle test, if you experience a strong arm muscle when I place my hand over your ears, mouth, navel, or hands, then your ANS's ability to regulate is blocked.
If your body is in this state, you may not see a change in your symptoms, or you may find a new symptom that hangs around, or you may just feel weak or experience fatigue. This condition will also weaken your immune system, making you susceptible to colds or flu. Think of it this way: how well can a bicycle wheel work with a stick stuck in the spokes? Our mission is to remove any impediments to your body's natural healing mechanisms.
When blocking occurs, it is important to identify the stressors or barriers to healing. These barriers include food sensitivities; immune challenges; chemical sensitivities, such as to formaldehyde, food dyes, colors and preservatives; metal sensitivities, such as to aluminum, mercury or lead; and external body scars.
Once your barriers are identified, your practitioner will provide the solution in the form of a supplement, light treatment (in the case of an active scar), or other recommendation if needed. These actions restore normal regulation and progress toward better health resumes.

What Does "Switching" Mean?

As in the case of blocking, switching can occur when the ANS is under stress. Simply, put, switching describes a condition of "going back and forth", "up and down", "on and off". (Think of it as a light switch that turns a light on and off).
During the muscle test, if you experience a weak muscle after you've placed your thumb and pinkie together on one hand with your eyes open or closed, then you are switched. In some cases, a state of switching exists at a deeper level of disturbance. In this situation, I check the strength of your muscle in one of many positions. For example, I will have you place a finger of one hand on your chin and a finger of your other hand on your navel. (My assistant Laura and I call this process of placing you in various positions "nutritional twister.")
Again, if switching occurs, you may experience "roller coastering", (for instance, your symptoms improve and then worsen, or your energy rises and falls). Another phenomenon is the "opposite reaction". Examples of this are having an unpleasant reaction to a supplement you've tested well for or gaining weight on a diet despite exercise. In both cases one would have expected the opposite reaction. When switching occurs, it is important to identify the stressor(s). Once identified, your practitioner will provide the appropriate supplement (or light treatment in the case of a reactivated scar). This action restores normal regulation, and progress toward better health resumes.

How Do Scars Affect My Health?

Simple answer: a scar on the surface of your body can interfere with the normal regulation of the ANS. This interference prevents the body from healing. It can be the "missing piece" that, when handled, results in miraculous symptomatic relief. Therefore, scars are considered one of the key stressors. Let's take a closer look.
The ANS has two regulators, sympathetic and parasympathetic. You may have heard the phrases "fight or flight" or "relaxation response." The first of these refers to the sympathetic regulator while the second refers to the parasympathetic regulator.
The sympathetic regulator consists of a dense network of nerve fibers that are deployed over your entire body~ like a silk stocking. When you cut your skin, you damage the stocking. When the skin heals, the nerve fibers simply do not knit together exactly the way they were before. (Imagine repairing a torn silk stocking.) The result is a potential or intermittent disruption in your nervous system, a disruption that can interfere with the normal regulation of your autonomic nervous system.
For a greater ease of understanding, metaphors may be useful. Think of a scar as either a capacitor or a circuit breaker. Both are electrical devices. A capacitor accumulates electrical potential. This potential needs to be regulated, or a surge of electrical energy will be released and create interference or disruption. Scars can act like capacitors but without regulation. Thus, they can create intermittent disruption of normal ANS regulation.
A circuit breaker is a switch on an electrical panel that can "pop off" when there is a surge of electricity and prevent potential damage. However, without electricity flowing through the circuit, normal operation of electrical devices ceases. Scars appear to "pop off" like a circuit breaker, thus disrupting normal regulation of the ANS. These are only metaphors, but they give you a good understanding of what's happening. Whichever metaphor works best for you (capacitor or circuit breaker); a scar can be a key stressor that can cause intermittent interference with, or disruption, of normal ANS regulation.
When this condition is identified, applying wheat germ oil or sesame oil to the scar before treating it with a hand-held cold laser should deactivate the scar and eliminate the interference.

If You Don't Treat Your Scar, You Won’t Go Far.

Scars are treated using a cold hand-held laser light held over the scar for three or four minutes. In addition, you should apply wheat germ or sesame seed oil to the scar on a daily basis, rubbing it in completely so as not to stain your clothes. Both treatments are designed to restore the flow of blood, nerves and body fluid through the scar tissue and re-establish normal regulation.

Some people notice the scar tissue disappearing over time. This goes for old, as well as new scars. In many instances, chronic pain and other symptoms disappear with the use of these techniques. Scars are just as important as the other barriers to healing. They must be actively treated in order to restore proper regulation~ the key to getting well. This is why you'll often hear me say, "If you don't treat your scar, you won’t go far."

How Long Must I Treat My Scars?

Some scars remain a potential trouble for the ANS. Immune stressors like bacteria or parasites can adversely affect a scar. Likewise, an overly dense mass of fibrous tissue can be difficult for the laser to penetrate. In such situations, treatment using the oils and laser light may not be enough to permanently correct the condition.

Instead we might recommend applying specific products like Systemic Formula's Bactrex, Virox or Renovator to the scar's surface before using the laser light. For the toughest cases, a qualified practitioner might inject solutions of procaine or lidocaine to the periphery of the scar.

How Did I Get Food Sensitivities?

This is a complicated topic for which there is no simple answer. To begin, some of us come into this world with less than our fair share of digestive or metabolic enzymes (metabolic meaning "change" or "to change"). In our bodies, metabolism occurs to put substances together (like proteins, fats and carbohydrates that provide the bio-energy needed to run our body's systems.

If we are missing specific enzymes to handle grains, eggs or dairy, the incomplete breakdown (metabolism) of these foods will result in larger than normal particulates that can attract the attention of our immune system. These larger than normal particulates may settle in the joints, for example, and cause the immune system to attack our joints, resulting in arthritis. These particulates may settle in the intestines, resulting in a similar attack causing IBD or celiac disease. These same particulates may create similar problems for other organs or glands and create a host of common symptoms.

Most of us eat highly processed or refined foods that overburden our metabolic enzyme bank. Each of us comes into the world with a limited bank or store of enzymes that we get to use any way we want. For instance, we can digest doughnuts and Dairy Queen or vegetables and fruits. Unlike highly refined foods, however, whole foods come with their own enzymes to aid digestion. This naturally eases the burden on our body's store of enzymes. In other words, by eating whole foods we can go farther on the enzymes we received at birth as our genetic share.

In an earlier section, I talked about genetically modified foods and the dangers they pose. It's worth mentioning again that the foreign genetic material that provides the plant's resistance to pesticides has been shown to co-opt the friendly bacteria in our gut. This means that your gut continues to make these pesticide poisons long after the food has been evacuated. Can you see how the body might reject them at some point? It’s toxic to the body, for heaven's sake!

Finally, a small percentage of us are born with allergies to food substances that our bodies perceive as poison. A common example is a reaction to peanuts. In, these cases, we simply can't eat them without risking potentially fatal results. But this condition exceeds sensitivity and rises to the level of a full-blown allergy.

Will I Ever Be Able To Eat Those Foods Again?

For some of us, the answer is, no! For others, as our health improves, we may be able to eat a limited quantity of the foods our bodies are currently sensitive to.

There is an exciting technique we call AACT, or the Advanced Allergy Clearing Technique. This technique helps reduce the hypersensitive reactions for those who are exposed to certain foods, chemicals, or metals. Many are able to tolerate exposure with less or no treatment, or "clearings," as we refer to them. Miraculous transformations have been experienced with the AACT option.

If you are interested in pursuing the desensitization process, please alert the staff and we will fill you in on both the appropriateness in your situation as well as what to expect.

Remember, you are making significant changes to the materials (foods) that your body uses to produce energy. Although you're sensitive to some foods and processed foods are nutritionally wanting, your body has adapted in many ways to "stay alive," despite the fact that these adaptations cause problems for you. An extreme example of a body's adaptability to "stay alive" can be demonstrated using the experience of hypothermia.

Hypothermia is a condition caused by exposure to extreme cold or too long. As the body cools down, it reacts by shutting down the blood supply to the extremities, such as fingers and toes, resulting in frostbite. This is simply your body's way of sacrificing what it decides are less important parts compared to organs like the brain, heart and kidneys. The point is that your body makes all kinds of decisions and adapts in ways it sees fit, in order to preserve the best chance of survival. It does this despite that fact that you may suffer in the process.

You may have thought you were getting away with a diet based on sugars and processed food, but sooner or later there is a price to pay. So if after meals you experience a feeling of hunger, reduced energy, nervousness, hyperactivity, anger, irritability or a craving for sweets then let us know immediately. These are signs that you're running on the wrong blend of fats, proteins and carbohydrates.

As an individual, you need to become aware of the food you do best with. This includes the ratio of food's basic components: fats, proteins and carbohydrates. Therefore, simple adjustments are often all that are needed to handle the conditions listed in the title of this FAQ. Some may need more good fats like olive, coconut, peanut or sesame oils as well as avocados or fish oils. Others may require more or less protein in the form of red meat, poultry or fish. Finally, others may need more or fewer carbohydrates in the form of fresh fruits and vegetables. Regardless, it is your awareness and communication to us of these clear signals that will enable us to help you in the right balance. Good things are about to happen!

Do I Have To Take These Supplements Forever?

Supplements are just that~ supplements. They are used to complete or enhance your body's lack of wholeness or deficiency. Our bodies require certain substances that are essential for healthy function. "Essential" in the nutritional world means something our bodies do not produce on their own but is required to be eaten for normal operation. Without that something, you lose your health. If you are like most, this is where you are at now.

Often I am asked, "Why can't we just eat more healthy foods instead of using supplements?" Unfortunately, by the time you're on a program like ours, your deficiencies are beyond that which foods alone can replace. In addition, your digestive capacities have been compromised in many cases, requiring nutrition in predigested or concentrated forms in order to be of any use to your system.

To complicate things further, so-called healthy foods don't have the vitamins and minerals they once did before the persistent application of pesticides, fungicides, herbicides and over-cultivation of the soil. One startling fact is that, to get the same minerals in one cup of spinach that was available in 1945, it would take 45 cups today. Extend this concept to other foods and you can see how foods alone would not re-establish your health.

Therefore, the supplements you take during the fine-tuning and healing phases will, for the most part, not be those you'll require in the maintenance phase. When each and every reflex, i.e. organ or gland, is restored to health, broad-spectrum vitamins, minerals and enzymes are all that are needed to perpetuate good health. For many, this amounts to products like Standard Process's Cyrofood, Calcifood, Multizyme or Zypan and Cardio Plus. This assumes you maintain your newfound eating habits and lifestyle, of course. Bon appétit!

You Said I Was Sensitive to Grains and Sweeteners, But There Are Oats or Honey in My Supplements.

Standard Process products may contain foods you are supposed to avoid. For instance, you might find one or two containing soy lecithin, oats, wheat, or honey. You ask, if you are supposed to avoid them, why do I recommend these products? Simple answer: you tested well for them. But let's take a closer look.

First, when it comes to grains, your sensitivity is to the carbohydrate and/ or the protein part of the food, not the germ (as in wheat germ) or the oil (as in wheat germ oil or soy lecithin).

Secondly, the food used in SP product is nearly always organic and not raised with pesticides, fungicides and herbicides. It is processed before rancidity (in the case of oils) or spoilage occurs. It is never stored with preservatives or treated with fumigants. In addition, these supplements are processed using a proprietary method that preserves the balance of vitamins and minerals inherent in the original food. In short, the molecular structure is quite different from that of commercial products found in the market place.

You can be assured that when you test well for an SP supplement, it will do its job successfully. Nutrition Response Testing has proven its worth consistently over decades of clinical application. Stick with your program, avoid the foods you are sensitive to, and take your supplements as directed. Your symptoms will improve, and more importantly, your body will begin the process of repairing itself.

Do My Genes Doom Me To Poor Health?

If you believe the media hype, then yes. But the reality is quite different. As I written in The Great Health Heist, Dr. Francis M Pottenger, Jr. proved that through his studies with cats, that food can alter genes. These alterations proved catastrophic, causing cats that ate cooked foods (food a cat would not eat in the wild) to bear offspring that eventually could not survive.

In that book, it wasn't mentioned that Dr. Pottenger's findings were pre-dated by the speculations of Jean-Baptiste Lamarck, a French biologist (1744-1829) who theorized that organisms acquire and pass on adaptations necessary for their survival in a changing environment. Today we call these organisms "genes" and recognize that, when affected by the environment, they change. These altered genes or traits can be passed onto subsequent generations. Dr. Pottenger substantiated Lamarck's theory using food as the environmental factor.

Current science has established that DNA blueprints passed down through genes are not set in concrete at birth. In other words, your genes are not necessarily your destiny!

Environmental influences, including nutrition, stress and emotions, can modify those genes without changing their basic blueprint. And those modifications can be passed on to future generations, as addressed by Bruce Lipton, PhD, in his article, "The Biology of Belief."

A landmark Duke University study was published in the August 1, 2003 issue of Molecular and Cellular Biology and highlighted in a "NOVA science NOW" segment on PBS in July, 2007. It found that mice with an abnormal gene predisposing them to a yellow-furred coat, obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular disease and cancer, when provided with nutritional supplementation, produced standard lean, brown-furred mice, despite having the abnormal gene. The mice that didn't get the supplements manifested a number of the characteristics of diabetes.

In addition, Dr. Dean Ornish, who promotes an extremely low-fat vegetarian diet, reported in his book, The Spectrum, on a UCLA study he directed that utilized food to alter genetic markers for prostate cancer. His conclusion: "Although you can't change your genes, you can alter how they are expressed."

Our health is not set in stone. We can take control and make a difference in most circumstances regardless of "the genetic hand" our parents may have dealt us. So wear your genes proudly!

What is the Science behind Muscle Testing?

Muscle testing (or applied kinesiology) and Nutrition Response Testing is a relatively new science established in the 1960’s through the efforts of Dr. George Goodheart, a highly respected chiropractor, teacher and author who died in 2008. He was a giant in his field and a beacon of truth.

To those practitioners trained to use this modality, nothing uncovers hidden health problems better than muscle testing. To the naysayers, muscle testing is nothing but quackery. Just remember, any change to a customary approach, regardless of the field, is viewed as a challenge to the culturally adopted norm. The best way to change the norm is to show results because, in the end, the results are all that counts. But it never hurts to provide a little information, and so I begin with my own story.

Before I begin, I must share my own initial reaction to muscle testing~ skepticism. Freddie Ulan, DC, CCN, my mentor and founder of Nutrition Response Testing, loves to embarrass me in front of as many people as he can by describing when we first met.

I had been suffering with poor health for many years and was searching for a solution. One day an acquaintance turned me on to Dr. Ulan. I sat in the back of the room during his workshop, arms folded, in disbelief at what I was witnessing. However, after getting evaluated, I agreed to follow my nutritional healing program to the letter, and within a few weeks I felt better than I had in years.

Back in my clinic, I applied the same method of evaluation to every willing patient and they, too, got great results. At my next workshop with Dr. Ulan, I asked him to teach me everything he knew and he obliged. Before we both knew it, I wrote The Great Health Heist, an introduction to Nutrition Response Testing.

So, what is science? What is magic? Are they different?

Just so we understand what we’re talking about, the word "science” means "to know" while the definition of "magic" includes terms like "supernatural" or "mysterious."

Arthur C. Clark, a renowned science visionary and inspiration for the motion picture 2001: A Space Odyssey, writes in his book, Profiles of the future, that "any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." In other words, something may seem like magic, but it's really science and technology.

So let’s hop into our "way back" machines and return to our childhoods. Can you remember when you first discovered magnetism using a magnet and some iron filings? You placed the filings on a piece of paper or glass and put the magnet underneath. By moving the magnet around, you could move the filings in any direction. In other words, you were demonstrating the nature of electro-magnetic energy and its capacity to penetrate a solid object (the paper or glass).

How does this apply to your physical body? Simple: Your nervous system runs on electricity and is connected to your muscles along with everything else. In short, it is affected by electricity and magnetism and almost any object emitting them.

A dramatic example of this is when a person's heart suddenly stops beating. By receiving a shock of electrical energy, the heart can return to a regular rhythm, beating once again.

Muscle testing simply takes advantage of the electrical properties of all things, especially the subtle emitters of energy like foods, immune challenges, chemicals and metals. If these objects are close enough to the body and strong enough, they will cause a reaction. And this reaction will be reflected in the function of your muscles strengthening or weakening them, for example.

A breakthrough discovery by Dr. Goodheart revealed that this phenomenon could be translated into practical information that, when used by a highly trained practitioner of the healing arts, would lead to a potential strategy to restore normal function to the body.

So, (1) when your practitioner applies pressure on your extended arm while placing his or her hand or a glass container on your body (both being objects that emit a form of electrical energy) and (2) your arm muscle react by feeling weaker or stronger, (3) your practitioner is able to design an effective nutritional healing program to restore your body to health and healthy function.

With this knowledge, and your eyes now open to another marvel of Nature, you can more comfortably accept what I believe is the technology of the future.